Thursday, September 29, 2022

Hoyle Nix on Caprock

Hoyle Nix and his West Texas Cowboys - Coming Down from Denver (Caprock 45-105), 1958

Today's selection from our little Hoyle Nix series features Nix' third and last release on the Caprock label from fall 1958. Nix and the West Texas Cowboys are in good form here and present two solid western swing performance in their usual manner.

Caprock Records had been founded nearly a year earlier by DJ and country music singer Hank Harral. Nix and his band recorded a total of three discs for the label, all of which were recorded and released during 1958. They used Ben Hall's studio in Big Spring, Texas, for the sessions, which was a welcomed possibility for the band, as it was their home base and not far away from their regular gigs at Nix' Stampede Club in Big Spring.

"Coming Down from Denver" is a lively instrumental and was recorded, along with its flip side, the vocal number "My Mary", at Hall's studio at some point in 1958 with Nix on vocals and fiddle, Ben Nix on vocals and rhythm guitar, Eldon Shamblin on lead guitar, Little Red Hayes on fiddle, Dusty Stewart on steel guitar, Loran Warren on banjo, Dale Burkett on piano, and John Minnick on bass. A drummer could have been present at the session, (possibly Kenny Lane), though this is not documented. The band differed to some extend from the line-up that would record for Bo-Kay Records the next year as Red Hayes, Dale Burkett, Loran Warren, and John Minnick had left and were replaced by other musicians.

A Nix original, "Coming Down from Denver" was later also recorded by Nix' mentor and friend Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys for Wills' "For the Last Time" sessions in 1973.

See also
Hoyle Nix
Hoyle Nix on Bo-Kay
• Hoyle Nix on Winston

Sources
Entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies
Entry at 45cat

No comments: